If exercise is healthy (so good for you!) why do many people dislike or avoid it? These
engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to
mention sitting sleeping sprinting weight lifting playing fighting walking jogging and
even dancing. Strikes a perfect balance of scholarship wit and enthusiasm.” —Bill Bryson New
York Times best-selling author of The Body • If we are born to walk and run why do most of us
take it easy whenever possible? • Does running ruin your knees? • Should we do weights cardio
or high-intensity training? • Is sitting really the new smoking? • Can you lose weight by
walking? • And how do we make sense of the conflicting anxiety-inducing information about rest
physical activity and exercise with which we are bombarded? In this myth-busting book Daniel
Lieberman professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and a pioneering
researcher on the evolution of human physical activity tells the story of how we never evolved
to exercise—to do voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. Using his own research
and experiences throughout the world Lieberman recounts without jargon how and why humans
evolved to walk run dig and do other necessary and rewarding physical activities while
avoiding needless exertion. Exercised is entertaining and enlightening but also constructive.
As our increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity and
diseases such as diabetes Lieberman audaciously argues that to become more active we need to
do more than medicalize and commodify exercise. Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology
and anthropology Lieberman suggests how we can make exercise more enjoyable rather than
shaming and blaming people for avoiding it. He also tackles the question of whether you can
exercise too much even as he explains why exercise can reduce our vulnerability to the
diseases mostly likely to make us sick and kill us.
